I want a good people search site?

Question

I want to find someone who I only know her maiden name and where she lived some 50 years ago. I am perfectly willing to pay but want to be sure I will get results!

Answer 1

http://www.zabasearch.com/

seems to be significantly better than Yahoo People Search, as far as the free sites go.

Answer 2

Even if you are using pros, the more information you have on the person before you begin searching, the greater the chances are you will find the person.  

Since you only know the person's maiden name and where they lived 50 years ago, you'd be smart to do some digging on your own to dig up other facts on this person before involving the pros.  At least, I would; because without much to go on, they may not get very far.

So, the plan is to first find out as much as you can on your own, and then involve the pros.

Make a list of everything you know, and add to it as you find new information.  List all known addresses for them, even if they are 50 years old.  Do you know their birthday?  Their approximate age?  Their first, last, and middle name? (Maiden is a start.) What high school or college they attended?  Their hometown?  Other useful facts are hobbies, name of business, employer, friends, email address, online nickname, old telephone numbers, and Social Security number.  

Some of the above you may stumble across as you access public records sites I will give you below.  Finding someone is a long process that involves a lot of time invested.  You can pay thousands for the pros to do it, or you can save a lot of money by doing preliminary legwork, and then involving the pros after you have more facts to present them with!

I have listed many free links to public records from property taxes, court house records, military, marriage, divorce, obituary, prison, and many other free records. What I suggest is to use services that aren't free to pull as much information as you can, and then combine them with free public records sites and googling, which can be a wealth of information when looking for someone.

Not all links will be applicable to you.  Pick and choose the ones you feel will help you in your search.

On many "paid" sites, you can get a lot of information without paying anything! You'd be surprised just how much you can find out without agreeing to pay them one dime! Try it!

A couple of sites that are not free, but that can help you piece together information, are

Intellius People Search

http://www.intelius.com/people-search.ht...

and this one, Melissa Data People Finder, gives a lot of information before having to pay.

http://www.melissadata.com/cgi-bin/peopl...

You can take sites like those, along with WhitePages.com and www.zabasearch.com (which allows you to leave free messages for people you are searching for) and google for any information you might have, such as an email address.

So, first start with the "free" side of paid sites (don't pay them a dime; just glean from their free portion of services!) to glean what information you can, then go after the free public sites with gusto, and combine the "free" paid and "completely free" sites together to find the information you need. Sometimes you'll have to switch back and forth between the two in order to piece together your information, but the extra bit of time is worth it!

Try free public records searches, such as county clerk records and property tax records. Narrow it down first by state, then by county or city.

Top Ten Links for free public records searches, such as property tax, court records, and obituaries:

http://websearch.about.com/od/effectives...

Contains free birth, death and marriage records, including U.S. territories. United States Vital Records Information:

http://www.vitalrec.com/

Free state property tax searches:

http://publicrecords.netronline.com/

Search state and county clerks' offices public records by state, most are free. Many links per state! A wealth of info.  

http://www.publicrecordfinder.com/

Court records, criminal records, and property records:

http://www.pretrieve.com/

For free military records, use Military.com Buddy Finder:

http://www.military.com/Military/Locator...  - Search over 20 million records for military buddies.

Many links and resources for military records:

http://websearch.about.com/od/peoplesear...

Those include The Unofficial Air Force Email Locator, Navy WorldWide Locator, Shipmate Search, The Citadel People Search, and USMC Military Reunions.

If you are looking for prison records, try here:

http://www.thepamperedprisoner.com/inmat... - State prison records for every state, alphabetized.

http://www.corrections.com/ - Go under the Resources tab and click on "Inmate Locator." They have most states listed.

For federal prisons:

http://www.bop.gov/ - Has an inmate locator and a facilites locator.

http://www.vinelink.com/index.jsp - Prison inmate locator by state.

Obituaries 101 - Features every American state major newspaper with links to obituary sections

http://www.big101.com/OBITUARIES101.htm

If you decide you are ready to pay, here are a couple of highly rated investigative services. They have unlimited search fees from $29 to $34.95.

Net Detective http://www.netdetective.com/

Reverse Records http://www.reverserecords.org/

These resources should greatly assist in your search.